We had a chance to ask Adam Fletcher (PezRadar) some questions about Gears of War 4 that fans wanted to know! We asked in a tweet to post your questions and lots were answered. Some big relevations below, and some discussion about other small points in the game that have caused some good debate.

So, let’s get into the Q&A!

Q: Would you consider bringing back rank emblems? Pretty sad I was 1 tier away and couldn’t finish it. The communication wasn’t there.
A: Yep. May end up just including it for each of the seasons going forward on a rotating basis.

Q: Do the people in charge of making changes in Multiplayer actually play Multiplayer?
A: This is a question I’ve answered numerous times but I shall repeat! Of course. Pretty much all the MP designers play on their own free time and this includes the level designers. We also have a good amount of guys within the studio that play Versus and Horde as they constantly come over and bring back feedback to myself and Octus. People ask this question because they feel like the game isn’t catered directly to them thus they have a difference of opinions from what is done in-game.

Q: Is there any story DLC planned? Will we get Skorge?
A: Currently we do not have any story DLC planned for Gears of War 4. Skorge? Maybe? We shall see!

Q: Can we expect the Gears of War franchise to have a presence at E3?
A: E3 is only a few weeks away. I guess we will have to wait and find out!

Q: The ranking system seems like a fantastic major update. Will we see more major updates and can you share any information on what they might be?
A: Yep – The next major update is on the horizon and will include some significant updates for Horde along with some other cool content that I know some people are excited for.

Q: Will we ever see Clayton Carmine again?
We will be seeing some of the Carmine’s returning in their zombie form. Will we see them back in their non-zombie form or Clayton? TBD. I would say prospects are looking good though.

Q: Will Multiplayer Special Events ever last the entirety of the month like the horde events instead of just the weekend?
A: This is a possibility. We may end up having Versus and Horde events carry over through the whole month.

Q: Are The Coalition working on new things for current Season Pass holders?
A: We potentially have one other thing planned that goes on top of the other items we have included for all SP owners. Hopefully will have news on that soon.

Q: Will footsteps be made to be clearer in future updates?
A: We adjusted some of the audio issues with a few of our newer characters (RAAM and Kantus) with this latest update. We may do additional tweaks to other footstep audio in the future. It just goes down to the feedback we receive. Each time we tweak it, it seems to get better but we also get off the wall feedback that skews things where some people claim it was worse than before.

Q: Will older esports packs such as esports Supporter Season 1 ever be making a return?
A: Most likely in the form of their collection packs as we transition to new esports packs!

Q: What is the mood like in the office upon new map release days? The hour before and the hour after the community reactions.
A: The hour before? Usually everyone isn’t in yet because we tend to do those announcements before the studio is open. Damn you early morning press releases! But throughout the day most people have reddit or news sites up as they are reading about reactions or feedback from a TU announce. Quite a few are playing the dev playlist during the lunch hour on launch day as well.

Q: With cross-play expanding will the mouse be available to be used by Xbox One players?
A: This is currently not planned for Gears 4. Don’t know if it will be for other games.

Q: Have The Coalition looked into a unified weapon tuning instead of 2?
A: I talked about this on Tac-Com a few weeks back but we are always looking into a unified weapon tuning set. The issue is that our casual/social players prefer core tuning and the feeling of killing characters quickly while competitive tuning is more for our hardcore players. Competitive tuning allows for longer engagements and more skill needed to get a kill and our social/casual Gears fans have not been huge fans of that specific playlist due to difficulty it takes to get a down. This doesn’t mean we are very adamant on having 2 tunings but this does put us in a precarious situation as we do not want to abandon or alienate one set of fans due to another one’s intentions. I will also say that our social/casual player base is monstrous in size compared to our hardcore fans so abandoning either group isn’t something we want to do.

Q: As I know many Gears of War players will want to know, when is the enforcer getting a nerf? It never seems to get touched when trying to balance the weapons.
A: We haven’t received significant feedback regarding the enforcer needing to be nerfed. We typically get a few people that claim it is overpowered but another group that says it is fine and there are counters. We’ve also done feedback surveys to our hardcore group and most find the tuning to be within the delta that we are comfortable with. If we see this change, we will make tweaks.

Q: Will there be a better credit and XP payout in the future?
A: There could possibly be but as of now, we are okay with our current payouts. I think bounties could potentially get another pass to help boost those up.

Q: Will we see fan favourite weapon skins from UE in Gears of War 4 at some point?
A: Maybe. Weapon skins aren’t as easy as most assume as it requires a good amount of materials work and concept work on our end. Setting up weapon skins in-game in Gears 4 is totally different than how it was handled in UE as there is more detail and pieces involved. We may see some returning ones but I can’t guarantee we will see every single one.

And just for LoryatQ: Are you mad that his Maple Leafs are in the playoffs and your Dallas Stars are not?
Not really as the Maple Leafs are out and we moved up in the Draft Lottery to #3! Post-season only makes sense if you win it all. Everything else is a loss if you don’t get the cup!

We’d like to thank Adam for taking the time to answer all these questions!

A series of job board postings all but confirms that there will be a new Gears of War title in the near future.

We all knew that when Microsoft bought the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games that we would see some exciting titles, and although Gears of War UE and 4 have received mixed reception from the hardcore fan base we are all excited about the possibility of a new game that will satisfy the many fans of the game all over the world.

– Experience with 3DSMax, Maya, or other professional 3D modelling software

If you are in doubt at this point about this just being general recruitment for the Gears of War game franchise. Then why would they be recruiting so many people in so many positions and mentioning experience on delivering AAA titles?

List of all jobs available. We have included the Unannounced Project also, as this is what we believe to be the same title.

Hi folks, if you’ve been having trouble rolling back your drivers or been having crashes for the past few months on Gears of War 4 then download THIS NVIDIA driver. Just follow the on screen instructions when you execute the file. Please note, we do advise you click “custom (Advanced)” and then “perform a clean instillation”. I’ve been testing this driver for a day or two now and I’ve had no issue. Play without fear of losing XP and credits!

Share with your friends that have been having any crashing issues with their NVIDIA card on Gears of War 4!

The maps in Gears of War 4 are on rotation, which has resulted in a few discussions to appear about what the best thing to do to resolve some issues would be.

It is not an ideal situation we seem to find ourselves in, where often a small pool of maps results in little variety in matches at the moment.

It would be a good idea to have a re think about what the best thing to do might be, as currently a lot of people are unhappy about this situation.

A few ideas have been pitched on messageboards, and we have selected some of the key points to run through.

Not every map should be in every gamemode, some were built or simply work better for other modes. But to have them removed entirely from matchmaking is so stupid.

This is a big point. There are game modes for example that some would argue are not as enjoyable on massively different game modes. KoTH and Warzone for example being two different game modes. Or even KoTH and TDM.

On these modes, on maps like Drydock, its generally not a great map for TDM, as if a team can spread out on the high structure and grab the sniper too, it can be near on impossible for the spawning team to get a foothold back into the round.

However on Warzone/Execution it works really well on this map, and the constant new rounds help the gameplay, and help with the new chapter; new situation gameplay, which is what created that original Gears of War online atmosphere experienced in the original game.

So with this in mind, can you think of other game types and maps that are better suited for this kind of application?

This would complicate things if combined with the below point.

In Gears of War 1 you could choose matches based on the gamemode and the map. It would be great to aboloish gamemode playlists alltogether and select “preferences” instead, and matchmake on those global preferences.

So one example of this would be the game Rocket League. You can select maps, game modes you want to matchmake for from a list. You simply use the tick boxes to select… “ok i want to play either a 1v1, or a 2v2. I want to play this map, this map and this map only. Any of these combinations suits me fine.”

This would be a big change, but effectively resolve all problems encountered with limiting maps, limiting populations in playlists (especially on PC), making achievements difficult to obtain becasue no matches can be found (Warzone for example, my personal fav)

Battlefield’s server browser is basically that. You can select individual maps and modes to show up or group the maps based on the DLC and stuff, there’s even options for the amount of players in lobbies.

Another great example that Gears could take from is Titanfall 2’s Mixtapes. They allow you to choose what game modes you play in matchmaking and if the map is supported, then it’d show up with those game modes.

No option for what maps you’d like to play but it’s still a great addition

Map Fatigue is real with Rotation. Season Pass is useless.

Many players agree that playing the same maps over and over is not fun, espeically when there are so many that were announced to us that said would be available to us. It seems that priority over map rotation (that nobody really wants) is contributing to misery for a lot of players.

Something needs to change! Especially as it was recently announced there will be no more Campaign content DLC as part of the Season Pass. More reason to feel disgruntled by the SP for many! 🙁

Maybe you disagree with opinions spoken here. If so we want to hear about it!

It has recently been discovered and shared around the community about adverts showing modded controllers for Gears of War 4.

Some of the features include: Auto-Chainsaw, “Instant Edge” (which we assume means automatically taking cover?), Perfect Active Reload (because getting these is so difficult). The final mod shows us as Auto-Mark, which is probably the biggest advantage anyone could gain from this mod if it were exactly as it sounds.

Knowing where enemies are at all times is probably the hardest thing to communicate in the game to your team. If you and your team can see visually on the screen at all times where the enemies are, then this is a major advantage that would see abuse and a distinct advantage for somebody.

The truth is; that people who play Gears of War 4 and the rest of the game in the series will still be able to beat you with these mods. Whether they are on console or PC or not, you simply will not beat someone with massive amounts of experience. And there are A LOT of Gears players out there who can do this.

If you believe that buying this mod will help you win at Gears of War 4 you will be sorely dissapointed. Part of the process of enjoying Gears is learning to lose, and understanding why you are not winning the battles you have during the game. Constantly improving your game and removing the mistakes and molding yourself as an evasion and Gnasher pro is not something that will come quickly, and no amount of mods can really help you here, (unless you are playing Gears of War 3!)

If you are really desperate and still think the mod is a good idea, then it might be worth asking a few questions to the company selling these.

Does the active reload work for each weapon? – As each weapon has a different active reload time.

Will this mod get me banned? – We know that Microsoft has taken cheating and abuse online very seriously in the last couple of years, handing out bans to people.

Will it add more satisfaction and enjoyment to your gaming? – This is the biggest question for me; because it is a game after all and the reason we play it is because its fun and it makes our brains work hard. But if you have a mod then you know in the back of your mind that you are cheating, so you will never be as satisfied as someone who doesnt use a mod.

Personally having played Gears of War 1 on a 1.3mb/s connection around 10 years ago, every kill was more satisfying because I knew I was at a disadvantage. It is always fun to challenge yourself, and the only way I can personally enjoy online competitive gaming is if I know I am seeing improvements as a player. Unfortunately there is no shortcut to success in Gears.

TLDR:This started as a little moan about Weapon skins, then turned into a bit of a rant about the direction of past Gears games and now with an over exaggerated focus on customization.

I believe that less is more, and having too many weapons, too many weapon skins, too many character skins actually takes away from the gameplay.

No longer are we excited about “new content” for the game, because they are just making new patterns and not a whole lot else.

The game Rocket League has a great user interface, really great and consistent matchmaking, great ranking system and a replay editor to die for. Rocket league is not on the same budget, does not have the same engine etc.. but being Microsofts AAA title, dont we deserve something that is at least on par with a game like this??

It seems to me that we are taken for fools with the season pass, and the lazy content being produced is something they are even getting us to do with a competition to make YET ANOTHER WEAPON SKIN.

Full Opinion Post Starts Here..

So Christmas is done with, although we can still collect all of the Christmas weapon skins.

They only cost 400 Credits a go so thats only about 3 or 4 matches of King of the Hill (or about an hour or more of your life) to earn those credits to be able to collect all of those weapon skins for Christmas. Just gotta hope we dont get duplicates, shame we cant trade like some games allow.

Oh and dont forget about the UIR weapon skins. These ones are fantastically ordinary looking, which is great if you like the hundred other weapon skin options that are fairly ordinary and unnecessary. These UIR ones will only cost you over 4,000 credits… and dont even get me started on the absolute bargain that is the eSports skins, or the Black Steel set. Those are fantastic too. They only cost real money, but thats acceptable to us. £8.00 for some artwork on a gun that i use in a game that I enjoy playing. What more could I want!!

It seems that the first Gears of War games in the series were somewhat challenged in their ability to satisfy gamers needs for customisation. And the importance of it shown in the forums to people was highlighted often, and people really wanted there to be more options going forward. Fair enough!

So in Gears of War 1, we had very limited character sets, and weapon skins? You were lucky to even have a hammerburst selection in Gears of War 2…. but you know what. That was actually better in my view. Having less choice is sometimes a good thing. Like “OMG That guy has the Gold Hammerburst!! WTF!!!” Gone are those days, because everyone has a different weapon skin and noone really knows what ones are more rare than other ones. Except if we see someone rocking out a Black Steel something, then we can quite clearly accept that these people have too much money than sense in some cases.

This whole concept of less choice is better, couldnt be more true than in Gears of War 3 with the introduction of the Retro Lancer and the Sawed-off shotgun. These two weapons were two highlighted weapons that were turning players off a lot in Gears of War 3, especially with the Veteran players and biggest fans of the game. It was like “oh we see how you like playing the game, so we are going to make it awkward for the way you like playing it” It would be like someone in soccer saying “well actually we see the goalkeepers like using their hands and its really effective so we are actually going to not allow it anymore”

Then along comes Gears of War Judgment, which promised us all what we had ever dreamed of and more, all these events promoting the game, whole new game modes and concepts of playing such as Outrun.

At a time when Call of Duty was the biggest game of our generation it seemed like a wise move by Epic games to copy the formula to some degree, and create a Call of Duty clone disguised in the game we all know and love. Forget tactical battles and the slow taking of cover, creating angles to dominate areas of the map.. its all about the rush, just keep running and rushing if you want to play this game. See a 90 degree corner there? Yup there is another coming up in about 3 seconds and you have no idea whats coming in any direction because of the closed off maps and the lack of significant cover means its pretty much a Gnasher battle every 3 seconds. But yay we love Gears of War and you know what else we love? 100 playlists, and seperate playlists for people with the DLC and people without it. So if you ever want to get clips and show off videos on YouTube just delete some DLC and play with people who have no idea, get famous on YT and have lots of fun that way.

Over the 10 years of Gears, I must admit that Gears of War 4 is pretty much what Gears of War should be and has been. It is a modern upgraded graphical game, with a more moden feel to it. However, the real problem we have now is to do with priorities and treating the fans as fools.

Give us a replay editor, stop giving us skins, give us a ranking system that works, stop treating us like fools.